Harley Davidson Days in St Petersburg

Harley Davidson Days in St Petersburg

The Loudest Festival in the City

Harley Davidson Days in St Petersburg is definitely the noisiest festival of the summer, which involves the whole city, its most fascinating sights, its beautiful suburbs, and resort areas.

The festival is organized by HOG (Harley Owner Group) of St. Petersburg with supported by Harley Davidson Company. HOG is the biggest club in the world uniting over 1. 5 million people: owners of Harleys and those who share the passion for motorbike riding and admire Harley Davidson’s products.

The festival has been held in St. Petersburg since 2011 and attracts thousands of motorcyclists from all over the world. Many cities of the world compete to host the festival.

This year the festival was held from Aug 7th to 10th and we can surely say that it was one of the most outstanding event of the summer in 2014. This year it has been included on the world’s calendar of events recommended for attendance as well as Hamburg Harley Days, Barcelona Harley Days, European Bike Week festival in Austria… Such festivals attract over 70,000 people to Hamburg, 120,000 people to the Lake Faker Sea in Austria, 100,000 to Barcelona and 110th anniversary of Harley Davidson attracted 175,000 people to Rome.

Ostrovsky Square in the heart of the city was chosen the location for the festival’s rich and diversified program.

Now we can say that the stereotyped reputation of such festivals: lots of beer, hard rock, and heavy hangovers was surely broken. This year there was no alcohol allowed and that guided the atmosphere more towards physical, mental, and creative activity and discovering new perspectives.

Ostrovsky Square was divided into several zones where various events were held simultaneously.

Demo rides were held at Demo Ride zone in Ostrovsky Square and attracted lots of attendees daily. Every motorbike rider could register and take a 15-minute test-ride on the newest model of the legendary Harley Davidson.

The interactive zone was for the contests, stunt riding shows, and children activities.

However, some participants were quite disappointed with unclear and vague judging criteria applied in tattoo contests.

Of course, everybody’s admiration and support was given to the courageous disabled motorbike riders.

The stage was occupied with an extensive musical program going on from 2:00 pm till after 10:00 pm daily. Over 30 musical groups performed during the 4 days of the festival.

The biggest event of the festival was the Motorbike Parade which was held on Saturday with its starting point on Palace Square. It was a long colorful line of 1,058 bikes, most of which were Harley’s traveling through the center of St Petersburg. The public in the streets cheered at the sight of the breathtaking line. The most spectacular part of the ride was in Rossi Street when the line of iconic bikes and classical facades met.

The rich excursion program took the bikers to the most picturesque suburbs of St Petersburg and resort areas around the city, which brought the atmosphere of Harley Days in St Petersburg to those citizens who did not feel like staying in the hot and stuffy town over the weekend for the event.